Hofri Ghostforge, the Boros Deck with 8 Win Conditions

Sometimes you end up needing more than one win condition for higher power play. Sometimes you end up with more than one win condition by nature of the deck you’ve put together. Hofri Ghostforge is my Boros Commander Deck with 8 Win Conditions – here’s how it works, and why I love to play it.

I’ve always loved Boros Reanimator, and it naturally stems from the first Commander deck I built that wasn’t a precon. I picked up the From the Vault: Angels and built Aurelia, the Warleader. Naturally, the deck needed some card advantage, and back in the day, that was mostly confined to cards like Mask of Memory, Wheel of Fortune (I managed to pick a couple up for very cheap compared to now!) and recursion. Think Sun Titan, Emeria Shepherd, Marshal’s Anthem. 

Eventually, Aurelia got a bit long in the tooth for playing Reanimator. She was better suited to combo, or a more staxy approach. In Strixhaven, the new helm of Boros Reanimator arrived – and he would do a lot for the archetype.

HOFRI GHOSTFORGE

Hofri does something really interesting: when your creatures die, he exiles those creatures from your yard and makes token copies of them. The completely wild and unprecedented part of this ability is that when the tokens leave play, those same creatures go back to the yard.

What this means is that you get to double dip on EtB and dies triggers, and you can set up reanimation effects to loop creatures in and out of the yard. While the deck was undoubtedly a lot more potent when Dockside Extortionist was legal, it doesn’t need it to pop off still. It just had to pivot to a more midrange plan to find the pieces it wants.

It also means the deck is capable of some niche combos with Mistmoon Griffin and Moorland Rescuer. My current build isn’t even utilizing these win cons, so they’d be win cons #9 and #10 in this instance – feel free to go nuts if you like. For me, I’ve been there and done that, and my deck has more than enough ways to win that I find personally more interesting and fun to pull off. 

I’ve even retired win condition #11, which was a Mob Rule or Insurrection play. Because Hofri says you exile the creatures that die under your control, it’s entirely possible to steal everything, sacrifice it all, get token copies of it, and exile those cards from graveyards. Quite the tempo play, I’m sure you’ll agree. Some folks opt to play an “Oops, All Threatens!” version of Hofri too, and I can see the appeal.

So, what win conditions are we running here?

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME

The beauty of building a deck like this is that so many of the win conditions play off of each other. While you’re building toward one, you’re also halfway to another. The sacrifice outlets you need can be combo pieces for different win conditions, and act as value pieces in the meantime. The Wheels you play to cycle cards into the yard also draw your interaction and protection, or creatures to play with Sneak Attack. 

In short, the main win conditions of the deck are:

• Cavalier of Flame
• Magmakin Artillerist
• Hallowed Spiritkeeper
• Altar of Dementia
• Goblin Bombardment/Warleader’s Call
• Storm of Souls
• Sneak Attack
• Combat Damage/Beats

As you can see, a big part of the deck’s overall plan is burn – and that’s why some of our card draw and engine pieces also feature burn. Valakut Exploration and Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant both do exactly what the deck wants to do, while also throwing out bonus burn damage. It’s those little deckbuilding choices that really allow the deck to come together.

A big part of this deck’s consistency is also the Boros Advantage Engine, or BAE for short. I wrote extensively on this before, but suffice to say – Boros might be second only to green in being able to ramp out lands. It just does so primarily using the graveyard. 

THE REASON I LOVE PLAYING THE DECK: CAVALIER OF FLAME

Lands matters – and indeed graveyard matters – is still very new territory for Boros, and in many ways, this deck works in spite of the limited support, and not because of it. The most fun wincon in the deck, and the one I love casting the most, is also just another one of my Wheel effects which supports other wincons. 

Cavalier of Flame burns out opponents for the number of lands in the yard. We get them there with our numerous Wheels, discard effects, and by playing four fetchlands and a bunch of other lands that can put themselves there. Land Tax is often one of the best cards we can ever open with, as it makes the wincon that much easier to get to.

Of course, one Cavalier is rarely enough. Getting two instances with Hofri in play and a sac outlet is the name of the game. Having Cursed Mirror in hand does a lot to make this win con easier, too. Damn. Cursed Mirror is such a house. 

A WHEELY GOOD TIME: MAGMAKIN ARTILLERIST

The deck runs seven ways to wheel our hand away, with many of them being multi-use, or able to be recurred. While this was always a good combo with Smothering Tithe – netting us oodles of mana – it wasn’t until Aetherdrift that we got a good way to turn those wheels into burn. Magmakin Artillerist is exactly what the deck wants, working in conjunction with Cavalier of Flame to deliver the pain. 

Being a 1/4 it can also block really well in the early game. Sometimes just playing this and chaining a couple of wheels gets us there.

ARMY IN A CAN: HALLOWED SPIRITKEEPER

Speaking of filling the yard, the deck doesn’t just run lands. It has thirty creatures. What can we do when we have those creatures in the yard? Well, capitalize on it, of course.

Hallowed Spiritkeeper is a card I don’t see anyone else play at this point, but it’s perfect for our deck. The dies trigger can net us upwards of 10-15 Spirit Tokens at any time we want provided there’s a sac outlet in play. If Hofri is in play, we get to do it twice – same goes for Roaming Throne naming Spirit, which is what we basically always name, as every token Hofri makes is a Spirit. 

What do we do with those Spirit tokens? Well, they get +1/+1, Trample and Haste with Hofri, so that’s often enough to knock out at least one opponent, and maybe more. You can also sacrifice them to an Altar of Dementia to mill people out, a Goblin Bombardment to burn people out, or Warleader’s Call to get the burn and make them ever yet larger. 

BACK FOR GOOD: STORM OF SOULS

Another way to get in the spirit of things filling our yard is to bring them all back with a cheeky Storm of Souls. Because this deck is EtB heavy – and because Hofri can buff Spirits – Storm of Souls gets that much better for us. We can even sacrifice what we bring back if Hofri is out and make it much larger, as the new token won’t be a 1/1. 

Storm of Souls is a win condition for us because it represents both a lot of combat damage and EtBs, but also because it can drop an engine onto the table that can either find our infinite combos, or just fish them out of the yard. 

THE MR KIM SPECIAL: SNEAK ATTACK

As an aside, if you haven’t seen the excellent Kim’s Convenience, then you need to. It’s one of the best sitcoms of the past decade.

Back to the topic, though, and let’s discuss how Sneak Attack can be yet another win con for Hofri. With so much ability to reanimate creatures using creatures, and with so much wheeling, you can keep your hand stocked up with creatures you really want to sneak in. Sneaking in Emeria Shepherd when you have a fetchland to play is a great deal.

A better deal is getting Valkyrie’s Call out alongside Sneak Attack, which essentially turns all of your creatures into {R} for a mana cost, while doubling their EtBs. Nice.

THE OL’ BOROS SPECIAL: BEATS

Hofri leans on wheels and cards like Trouble in Pairs so much because most modern Boros draw is tied to equipment or attacking. While this deck doesn’t have the traditional Boros win con as its main wincon, it’s more than capable of a pivot to this should the opportunity present itself.

I’ve won many a game swinging with Angel of Indemnity, Ao the Dawn Sky and Atsushi, the Blazing Sky – the latter two gaining haste and +1/+1 from Hofri, which is a nice little bonus. When you throw in a Song-Mad Treachery to steal someone else’s biggest beater, and buffs from Warleader’s Call or Cavalier of Flame, suddenly combat damage wins don’t seem too far out of scope. 

THE DOUBLE COMBO SPECIAL: FIEND HUNTER & FRIENDS

The other two win conditions in the deck are certainly achievable without Fiend Hunter for infinites, but primarily do revolve around infinite combos. 

Because of the wording on Fiend Hunter, you can sacrifice it before the original trigger resolves. This allows you to put it in the graveyard, and return the creature exiled with it to play – bringing Fiend Hunter back to play, for an infinite loop, provided you have the sac outlet. Fiend Hunter combos in this deck with Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, Angel of Indemnity, and Redemption Choir (as long as Coven is online). He combos with more stuff too, just not stuff we’re running. 

Infinite EtBs don’t do much, but if you have Phyrexian Altar, you can make infinite mana. What you really want to do, though, is win through a loop.

The first win con here is Goblin Bombardment or Warleader’s Call alongside another sac outlet. This combo is a way to burn out the table, but crucially, it’s achievable late enough in the game without even going infinite. With the quantity of creatures (and Hofri tokens) we can cycle in and out of play, and the number of reanimation effects we have to combine with them, it’s entirely possible to pull this off without even using Fiend Hunter. 

The second way to combo with Fiend Hunter is Altar of Dementia, targeting opponents to mill them out. I love this wincon in Hofri because even outside of combo, Altar of Dementia can help us fill our graveyard for all of our other win conditions.

What’s more, if you can somehow piece together a bunch of spirits off of Hallowed Spiritkeeper with a Hofri and Warleader’s Call buff, you have a bunch of 3/3s that can potentially mill someone out without going infinite. 

AN ONGOING PASSION PROJECT

Hofri is a deck I’ve loved piloting and refining over the years, and the variance of win condition and opportunity to be creative without going full-tilt into accelerated higher power gameplay is a style of Commander I love. It’s straddling somewhere between Bracket 3 and Bracket 4 right now, and I won’t lie to you – I fully agree we need another bracket for this style of deck to express itself without feeling beholden to fast mana and speeding toward infinite combos out of the gates.

Most recently, I was excited to add Summon: Yojimbo from Final Fantasy Commander. This doubles as removal and a way to fend off attacks in the mid game, essentially giving me another copy of The One Ring as far as lasting to the endgame is concerned. It’s very efficient with Hofri, as you can either sacrifice it early or let it resolve the final chapter, and you get another copy straight away.

As one of my favorite decks, Hofri enjoys a lot of my time and effort in getting fancy printings. You can view the full decklist over on Moxfield. Give it a go if you want something a little spicier in Boros.

 Do you have a deck with plenty of interlocking win conditions? Or maybe a Boros Reanimator deck? Let us know on Socials. Equally, if you want me to go more in depth and write a full on primer for this deck, talking about each card choice – let me know on BlueSky.